Le Procès Goldman

“I’m innocent because I’m innocent,” screams Pierre Goldman loudly and proudly, while on trial for killing two pharmacists in Paris. He was already handed down a life sentence for the crime but now, six years later, following the publication of his autobiography, he has been given a retrial. Speaking from the stands once again, Goldman (Arieh Worthalter) does not try to be nice or liked by the judges. He can be pedantic and quite aggressive at times, but is willing to pay the price to uphold his convictions if necessary. The strength of this film, which rarely leaves the loud and sometimes chaotic courtroom, resides in the intimacy created by Cédric Kahn’s staging—the expressions of the faces, the body language of the main characters, Goldman’s powerful voice—and the way it points the finger at not just French society’s antisemitism but all forms of institutional racism. The accused knows he was convicted based on speculation and racial profiling, but doesn’t even see that as a mistake: he knows the system works that way. When his lawyers and defense witnesses say that „some police officers are racist“, Goldman contradicts them. “It’s not some, it’s all”, he again shouts. And he’s right because he’s right. (Diego Lerer)

Cédric Kahn: BAR DES RAILS (1991), TROP DE BONHEUR (1994), L’ENNUI (1998), ROBERTO SUCCO (2001), FEUX ROUGES (2004), L’AVION (2005), LES REGRETS (2009), UNE VIE MEILLEURE (2012), VIE SAUVAGE (2014), LA PRIÈRE (2018), FÊTE DE FAMILLE (2019)